Turkey Reacts to US Congress Vote on 'Genocide'

A photo of Tsitsernakaberd, a memorial dedicated to the victims of what Armenians call the Armenian Genocide, in Yerevan, Armenia
(Wikipedia Commons/flickr)

What’s in a word? Well if the word is “genocide,” then it has the potential to do a lot of diplomatic damage between the U.S. and Turkey. Today the House Foreign Affairs Committee votes on a resolution to formally recognize a World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces as genocide.

What could this 95 year old issue do for U.S.–Turkey relations? Considering the issue has been a contentious one in Turkey, and that the country's Foreign Minister has tried to discourage the vote from taking place in the U.S., it will likely have an impact. The BBC’s Jonathan Head joins us now from Turkey, to talk more about the semantics of the issue, feelings in Turkey and what a vote for using "genocide" may mean.